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Selling Theory
AKM. Elias Hussain.
Sales management, personal selling, and salesmanship are all related. Sales management
directs the personal-selling effort, which, in turn, is implemented largely through
salesmanship. In managing personal selling, the sales executive must understand
activities comprising the salesperson’s job (including salesmanship),
Know the problems sales personnel meet ,
and suggest solutions including ways to handle problems in salesmanship.
Personal selling is a broader concept than salesmanship. Personal selling, along with
other marketing elements such as pricing, advertising, product development and research,
marketing channels, and physical distribution, is a means of implementing marketing
programmes.
Salesmanship is one aspect of personal selling - it is never all of it. Salesmanship is one
of the skills used in personal selling : It is the art of successful persuading prospects or
customers to buy products or services from which they can derive suitable benefits,
thereby increasing their total satisfactions.
Salesmanship, the, is seller-initiated effort that provides prospective buyers with
information and other benefits, motivating or persuading them to decide in favor of the
seller’s product or service. Sales personnel interact in diverse ways with the different
customers’ personnel. In addition to knowing the product and its applications thoroughly,
sales personnel have to be psychologists with some individuals, human computer with
others, counselors or advisors with still others, and personal friends with others.
Selling is considered an art by some and a science by others has produced two contrasting
approaches to the theory of selling.
There are two – approaches –
Ist - Ist approach distilled the experiences of successful salespeople
&
2nd
- approach borrowed findings from the behavioral science.
Selling aims to convert prospects in to customers and seeks to create customer out of
people who do not currently view the salesperson’s company favorably. During the
successful selling interview, according to AIDS theory, the prospect’s mind passes
through five successive mental states. Implicit in this theory is the notion that the
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prospect goes through these five stages consciously, so the sales presentation must lead
the prospect through them in the right sequence if a sale is to result.
AIDAS theory:
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
Satisfaction.
Attention:
The goal is to put the prospect into a receptive state of mind. The first few minutes of
interview are crucial. The salesperson has to have a reason, or an excuse, for conducting
the interview. If the salesperson previously has made an appointment, this phase presents
no problem, but experienced sales personnel say that even with an appointment, a
salesperson must possess considerable mental alertness, and be a skilled
conversationalist, to survive the start of the interview. The prospect’s guard is naturally
up, since he or she realizes that the caller is bent on selling something. The salesperson
must establish good rapport at once.
The salesperson needs an ample of “conversation openers”. Favorable first impressions
are assured by. among others things, proper attire, neatness, friendliness, and a genuine
smile. Skilled sales personnel often decide upon conversation openers just before the
interview so that those chosen are as timely as possible.
Generally it is advantageous if the opening remarks are about the prospect { people like
to talk and hear about themselves ) or if they are favorable comments about the
prospect’s business. A good conversation opener causes the prospect relax and set the
stage for the total presentation.
Interest:
The second goal is to intensify the prospect’s attention so that it evolves into strong
interest. many techniques are used to gain interest. Throughout the interest phase, the
hope is to search out the selling appeal that is most likely to be effective. Sometimes, the
prospect drops hints, which the salesperson then uses in selecting the best approach. This
usually happens if the prospect is allowed to talk an the salesperson become a best
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listener. To encourage hints by the prospect, some salespeople devise stratagems to elicit
revealing questions. On the other hand, some questions can be designed for clarification
of attitude and feeling for the product of the prospect.
Interview is the coaching center for a salesperson. The most experienced the salesperson,
the more he or she learned from interviews with different prospects. Prospects’ interest
are affected by basic motivations, closeness of the interview subject to current problems,
its timeliness, and their mood , receptive, skeptical or hostile – and the salesperson must
take all theses into account in selecting the appeal to emphasize.
Desire.
:
The third goal is to kindle the prospect’s desire to the ready-to-buy point. The salesperson
must keep the conversation running along the main line towards the sale. The
development of sales obstacles, the prospect’s objections, external interruptions, and
digressive remarks can sidetrack the presentation during this phase.
Obstacles must be faced and ways found to get around them. Objections need answering
to the prospect’s satisfaction. External interruption may cause breaks in the presentation,
and when conversation resumes, good salesperson summarize what have been said earlier
before continuing. Digressive remarks generally should be disposed of tactfully, with
finesse, but sometimes distracting digression is best handled, by yes – but - style..
Action :
If the presentation is perfect, the prospect is ready to act – that is. to buy. However,
buying is not automatic and as a rule, must be induced. Experienced salesperson rarely
try for a close until they are positive that the prospect is fully convinced of the merits of
the proposition.. Thus, it is up to the salesperson to sense when the time is right,
Satisfaction
The salesperson should reassure the customer the decision of purchase was correct. The
customer should be left with the impression that the salesperson merely helped in
deciding. Building satisfaction means thanking the customer for the purchase, and
attending to such matters as making certain that the order is filed as written, and
following up on promises made. Final order is the climax of selling situation, sometime
the prospect unsell themselves and for that the salesperson should not linger too long.
